Letter of the Day: Missing the point

| February 24, 2014

Missing the point

EDITOR: Charles Krauthammer likens global warming to the purported unreliability of mammograms and mocks President Barack Obama for saying that climate change is "settled science" ("The myth of settled climate science," Saturday). In fact, climate change is a settled science, much as gravity, relativity and the earth rotating around the sun are settled science.

Krauthammer's obsession with finding wrong with Obama prevents him from seeing the complete picture. The reality is that the climate is changing all over the planet — more droughts, floods, freezing temperatures, raging fires, melting ice caps, monstrous hurricanes — affecting not only the environment and animal life but ultimately human life as we know it.

The point Krauthammer misses is that it hardly matters whether climate change is the result of humans polluting the planet. The fact is that it's happening, and the issue is, what are we going to do about it?

We must take immediate and firm measures to mitigate the harm that will inevitably come to us, and our planet, if we don't address the reality of climate change. Saying those of us who recognize that are "whoring to the gods," as Krauthammer does, is crass at best. What is the purpose of Krauthammer's column? To advocate twiddling one's thumbs while Rome is burning?